A Few Good(ing) Men
Cuba G. Jr. fights military racism in Men of Honor
From the director of Soul Food and executive producer Bill Cosby, this biographical film looks at the life of Carl “Cookie” Brashear, the first African-American to become a Navy diver. That’s deep-sea diver – as in, climb into a 300-lb. pressure cooker with legs and walk along the ocean floor with no air but what comes down a hose, not that sissy rubber-suit scuba stuff. It chronicles the extraordinary effort required of a black man to achieve distinguished service in the 1950s U.S. military, which was integrated in name only. Representing an amalgam of several characters Brashear encountered during his career is DeNiro as fictional Master Chief Billy Sunday (I guess Master Chief Billy Graham would have sounded silly), a salty, alcoholic dive-school instructor who winds up being equal parts antagonist and mentor. Charlize Theron, doing a much more realistic Southern accent than in The Legend of Bagger Vance, shows up as Sunday’s young white-trash trophy wife, while Michael Rapaport and Josh Leonard (Blair Witch Josh – whaddaya know, there is life after shaky-cam) play fellow diving trainees. Also along in bit parts as Navy officers are three actors whose former notoriety illustrates the fact that in Hollywood you’re only as good as the boxoffice total of your last movie and that the industry believes few moviegoers want to see an actor over 40 who’s not Mel Gibson or Harrison Ford: Hal Holbrook, Powers Boothe, and David Keith.
Though Men of Honor succumbs to a few mawkishly overwrought missteps here and there, it boasts several taught, intense moments (many of them underwater) while still being inspirational enough that I think I heard my buddy Bill, an ardent military history buff who often comes along to critique details on movies like this, sniffing back a tear or two. Or maybe the Junior Mints were just a little strong. C+
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